Check out this Giveaway

Candied Fabrics is having a huge giveaway that you may be interested in. She is celebrating the opening of her new website from which she will sell her lovely hand-dyed fabrics and silk items. Check it out here.

Anita's Big Adventure

Big adventure, as in "this is the only thing I am allowed to do right now", haha.

Here is my trusty walker with a handy pouch that the husband washed just for me. I thought about making a brightly colored pouch with lots of pockets, but I'm hoping the walker won't be around long enough for me to really enjoy it.


Yesterday I took a short mental-health ride around town after 4 days of surgery recovery and days of being in the house. First stop: the video store for an evening with Columbo.











Next, we took a trip "inside the loop", which is
we rarely do on game day. Tomorrow is game day in Athens, GA and it is also Homecoming weekend, so "inside the loop" is off limits unless we want to sit in traffic for hours. The buildings in the background are part of the Univ. of GA campus.















Here's Sanford Stadium on the UGA campus.

















Then a quick trip through lovely downtown Athens. A good southern downtown has lots of shade trees.


Not much excitement, but it was a lovely day and I needed to get out of the house.

Beading Progress

Here's how I changed the current beading project since the last post...




I've moved the blue button that was in the way and beaded it into a swirl (top of the photo).


I like the way this turned out. More on this piece later.

Here's an update on the spill I took four weeks ago that hurt my hip and has kept me on a walker and cane for weeks. It turns out that the "bruise" that the emergency room said I had was a fractured hip. Makes one wonder why the ER couldn't figure that out, huh? So, I'm off to surgery in the morning to get some expensive new body jewelery...three new matching pins screwed into my hip bone. Fun.

For tonight, I'm enjoying my cheesecake brownie from Fibermania's recipe (Oct.22) and some yummy hot tea that I will not be able to drink in the morning. Worst part of surgery? I can't eat or have my tea! Pain is secondary.

I'll write again when I can...

More Beading

Last night I added this gold-toned stem beading stitch to the sampler piece...


It really looks more like a rope and it's one of my favorite stitches. That button may be a little close, though. Here's the whole piece again...



The button's definitely too close. I may replace the large button with a smaller one. Perhaps I'll try something new with the shell shapes. It needs more bugle beads too. Humm. More later.


Is it just my computer, or is blogspot really slow this week?

More Beading & QAA Meeting

I added some beads to this piece tonight...

I love this little raised picot edge which I applied, not to an edge, but to a line on the fabric. It's hard to see, but it's yummy in orange and multi-red.

This afternoon our Quilting Arts Alliance met at the Lyndon House in Athens, GA...

Paula Tanner (second from left) of Apalachee River Trash gave us a program called "Drafting Your Quilt Design". Paula is a commercial artist, among many other talents, and taught us how to use a proportion wheel plus some geometry tricks I have never seen before. It was a wonderful program. Thank you, Paula!

Show-n-tell included this piece by Paula which has a lovely cross-stitched center...

The flowers at the bottom are appliqued beautifully.

These sweet post cards were made by Mary Ann...

The one on the left is thread painted and the one on the right is colored with Paintstiks. I missed Frances' stairway quilts, but you can see one in her blog archive by clicking on her name.

Oooh, look what I found on Frances blog...

...some flesh-tone fabrics I dyed for her latest quilt. Thanks, Frances. I had forgotten to take a photo before giving them to you.

My Favorites in Houston

I was on a walker for the whole trip to Houston, so I was only able to see a small portion of the quilts in the quilt show. Here were my favorites.

Topping the list was my friend Joyce Cobb's quilt...


This next quilt, entitled Australian Bushfires and made by Fenella Davies of the UK, drew me in from across the room...


The small green segment at the bottom of the quilt represents new life following the fires.

I was so astounded by this next quilt that I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing! My hand was just 2 inches from the front of the quilt, so each piece in the quilt was only 1/4" wide!!!!

I also forgot to take a photo of the description sheet to record the maker's name. She was from Japan, I'm sure, and the quilt was amazing!


This last quilt in my favorites was also Joyce's favorite...I'd love to have this in my living room because it was bright, beautiful, and the perfect canvas for lots of bling...


It was called "Feeling Groovy" and was made by Candace West of Florida. I'd guess that it was about 5 to 6 feet long. Here are some of the details...

Finally, Houston Day 6

Day 6 of Houston was our last, but it was filled with classes and trips to the quilt show floor. The first stop was a lecture by Lyric Kinard on the Elements of Art. Sadly I had to leave before it was over to get to the next event which was the Friday Sampler.


This year's Friday Sampler consisted of 34 teachers in a double-ballroom. For those of you who have never attended one of the samplers, here's a list of the teachers: Esterita Austin, Maggie Backman, elinor peace bailey, Linda Ballard, Anelie Belden, Karen Kay Buckley, Melinda Bula, Linda Carlson, Darlene C. Christopherson, June Colburn, Melody Crust, Colleen Davis, Marilyn Doheney, Lynda MH Faires, Gyleen X. Fitzgerald, Marlene Glickman, Daphne Greig, Renae Haddadin, Nancy Hinds, Faye Labanaris, Peggy Martin, Dixie McBride, Stacy Michell, Margaret, J. Miller, Susie Monday, Gina Perkes, Linda M. Poole, Nancy Prince, Noriko Schmidtman, Mary Sorensen, Janet Stauffacher, Valerie Vavrik, Kristal Wick and Sheri Wood. That's quite a lineup, yes? Here are some photos of the setup and teachers...






The samplers are 2 hours long and participants can visit any teacher's area in those two hours. As I have said before, best bargain of the Festival at $30!

After lunch I had a wonderful class with Colleen Davis entitled Artsy Knitting Bohemian Style. Unfortunately, my knitting skills were not up to par, but I very much enjoyed the class.



Next up...my favorite quilts of those I saw in the show.